TAMPA, Fla. — Chaos at a Hillsborough County Schools bus stop led to the arrest of a bus driver in Tampa, police said. And, a viral video is believed to show what happened.
It all went down on Oct. 19 at the intersection of W. Main Street and N. Oregon Avenue, Tampa Police said in a release. Police said they arrived just after 7 a.m. after a school bus driver, 59-year-old Alpheria Wright reported a disturbance.
Police said Wright reported a man, possibly a parent, got onto the bus and started telling one of the students — believed to be his child —to sit down. Wright said he told the man to get off the bus. Instead of doing that, the man reportedly started yelling obscenities at Wright.
This caused some students on the bus to become upset and start yelling. Police said other parents still at the bus stop heard the commotion and started telling kids to get off the bus.
As they did, the man exited the school bus and left the area.
Police said Wright told officers he was concerned for the children's safety, so he refused to let the kids leave the bus and told parents they could follow the bus to Tampa Bay Elementary. Wright then started to pull away, but reportedly didn't know some of the children had already opened the rear emergency door to get off the bus as instructed by parents.
Multiple students used the emergency exit while the bus was moving. No one was hurt, police said.
A video appearing to show the moments the bus started pulling away is going viral. Shared on Instagram by Only in Florida, the video shows the bus slowly driving away while the emergency door was wide open. Several people are seen running behind the bus, trying to get it to stop. A dog can also be seen chasing after the bus.
As the video ends, the bus appears to start stopping. Tampa Police would not confirm the video shows the same incident. However, no other similar reports have surfaced.
Tampa officers said they arrived at the school and went to the bus, where Wright was waiting for them. During this time, because they couldn't find a student's cell phone on the bus, police said an officer brought the student to the bus to see if he could find it.
Before this could happen, police said Wright stood up and yelled, "he's not coming on the bus," and closed the bus doors. Despite several warnings from officers, police said Wright didn't comply with the officer's instructions and purposefully shut the bus doors several times against the officer as they were standing in the doorway.
Wright was arrested and charged with obstructing an officer without violence. Police said they are still working to identify and find the man who got on the bus at the bus stop. Additional charges could happen in this case, police added.
